A Government Accountability Office report determined the healthcare industry must do more to accurately match patients with their health records, and provided several potential solutions on how to do so.
"Inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistently formatted data can make record-matching difficult," the report states, adding that physicians can make dangerous mistakes if they fail to properly match patients to their health record.
GAO reviewed government reports on patient record matching and conducted interviews with industry stakeholders — such as hospital leaders, health information exchange vendors and health IT companies — for its report.
"Stakeholders said more could be done to improve patient record matching, and identified several efforts that could improve matching," the report states. These proposals included "implementing common standards for recording demographic data; sharing best practices and other resources; and developing a public-private collaboration effort could each improve matching."
Two more examples of patient-matching solutions stakeholders shared with GAO:
- Standardize how demographic data is formatted in the EHR. "In 2017, 23 providers in Texas implemented standards for how staff record[ed] patients' names, addresses and other data. Representatives from three hospitals said this increased their ability to match patients' medical records automatically. For example, one hospital's representatives said they had seen a significant decrease in the need to manually review records that do not match automatically."
- Assess the issue at a high-level. "In 2017 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology hosted a competition for participants to create an algorithm that most accurately matched patient records. ONC selected six winning submissions and plans to report on their analysis of the competition's data."
Stakeholders shared different perspectives on the role government agencies like ONC should play in patient-matching efforts. Some argued that ONC could require EHRs to implement demographic data standards, while other stakeholders said that ONC should facilitate the voluntary adoption of such standards.
Overall, stakeholders agreed that patient matching will not be solved with a single solution.
To access GAO's report, click here.